Donnie Walsh Quotations

What he gave to this franchise, this city and this state, for 18 years, puts him among the elite athletes to have played professional sports. No. 31 in the rafters adds another legacy to the great tradition of Indiana basketball.

Magic's greatest asset is his enthusiasm, the way he can lift his team up.

Maybe this was not the right team for a guy like Ronnie. Really, Ronnie couldn't get out from under it and I hope he does in Sacramento because everyone needs a fresh start.

I don't know that we were predisposed to wait a long time. But we knew it made it more plausible to do what we want to get done. There are certain things you can't do, like get a player to help you now in a deal that hurts you in the future.

I don't think anyone ever thought this rule would be used for this kind of situation. But having been through it, I can tell you it's an easier way to deal with it because it doesn't force you into doing something you don't want to do. It allows you to play the scenario out.

If anything, I've probably gone too far with Ronnie because I felt like he was going to learn how to do things. At that point, which I thought was true, that as long as he was here, anything he did would get blown up and affect his teammates and affect everybody.

He's always living down his past in this franchise, and so are we. So I do think it's a time to kind of break apart and see if he can get a new start somewhere else. I think it's very important for us to put our past behind us and to stop these distractions so that what I think is a fine basketball team can go on.

He's been cleared. It's all set. He's been working out on his own, separately, all along. Now he'll get a chance to practice with the team again.

I think that it is important for us to put our past behind us and stop these distractions.

Reggie is the one who made our transformation to the NBA real.

My way has always been to try to support players. If anything, I've probably gone too far with Ronnie because I felt like he was going to learn how to do things.

I think Ronnie is a guy who acts first and thinks later. If he were to do it over again, he might do it differently.

I think he certainly showed he could play when he got playing time.

We hate to let James go, but because of the balance of our team now, it is best for both he and our team to make this move.

We have a good roster with good players on the roster. I think they'll appreciate not having this in the middle of their season.

When I first heard about it, I thought to myself, 'I don't want a chair that looks like a basketball goal.' This doesn't look like that. The pillows are really beautiful. I'm going to put them in my house.

We're like everybody else. If there's a good deal out there we'll do it.

We just started the process, but I'm waiting to hear what they have to say.

There's really nothing new to report on that. We've dealt with the issue, and now it's up to David Stern.

There's no doubt in our mind he'll have an immediate impact on their team. We'll miss him very much.

I've talked to a lot of teams, discussed myriad types of offers. Some are player for player, some involve first-round draft picks, some involve savings, some involve a combination of those things. I'm encouraged by some of the things we were offered.

Ronnie didn't say he wouldn't go there, in fact he said the opposite was true. He said he wanted go there and win games.

That's when Mel (Daniels) and I ran the workouts.

I told the teams that I was dealing with out there, that he was going to have a large impact and whoever got him they'd move up in the standings. The only thing that will limit them does not have to do with Ronnie - they do not have enough big people to go up against the teams in the West.

This is kind of the last straw of a lot of issues.

I'm not putting a timetable on it. These things aren't that easy to work out.

I'm not going to box myself in by saying something like that.

I hope we can get something done in the next couple of weeks. But too many things can happen on the way to the forum for me to say we definitely will.

In my conversations with Reggie, it is clear he will not play next year. I've spoken with Reggie, and he is fine with it. This will go down as his final assist.

I do think the commissioner feels like he wants to present a picture to the public that becomes a professional basketball player and a pro basketball league. But even before this, we were on our way. We've just got a lot of young players in this league who need to grow into that role, and most of them are there.

I do think it is a time to kind of break apart and see if he can get a new start somewhere else.